Genius Wizard Takes Medicine Chapter 20

“What was that woman earlier?”
“The woman? You mean Evelyn?”
Dylan answered Lenoch’s question while exhaling smoke.
“Well, I don’t know much about her either. All I know is that she’s one of the elite agents directly under the city government.”
“An agent?”
“A combat operative managed directly by the city government. They pour a ridiculous amount of money into people like her. That suit she was wearing earlier? It’s all public property paid for by the city. Price-wise, it’s easily worth five billion Cel.”
“Five billion…”
For Lenoch, that was an unimaginable amount of money.
If she was wearing equipment worth that much, it made sense that she could withstand the strength of a monster like Crocken head-on.
“She’s also extremely skilled, and she’s famous for being ruthless. Unless you absolutely have to, fighting her is a losing deal. That old man probably thought the same.”
“Even after he nearly killed you, you still call him that? Interesting.”
Lenoch sneered, and Dylan chuckled.
“That’s what being a mercenary is. War mercenaries are especially like that. They’re the kind of people who’ll kill their own comrades for money. If we were sane, we wouldn’t have joined this kind of office in the first place.”
“……”
Dylan spoke as if he were mocking himself, but Lenoch could not bring himself to respond.
After all, wasn’t he also prepared to do whatever it took for money?
Seeing Lenoch fall silent, Dylan lightly patted him on the shoulder.
“Well, anyway, the job succeeded, and we both survived. Now all that’s left is to collect the money, right? Let’s go get our payment from Jenny.”
“You go ahead.”
“Huh?”
“I need to rest first. I’ll collect my share later, so tell Jenny that for me.”
After smoking one cigarette after another, Lenoch’s senses had dulled enough that he did not feel much pain yet.
But the fingers holding the filter were trembling slightly.
If he collapsed on the way to Jenny’s bar while trying to collect the money, that would be the worst possible outcome.
Even if he received the payment later, what he needed right now was rest.
Leaving behind Dylan, who looked slightly confused, Lenoch stood and began walking.
The hotel where he was staying was in District 34.
It was far too distant to walk from District 42, where the factory was located.
After reaching a reasonably decent street, Lenoch hailed a cheap taxi and sank his battered body into the seat.
“Whew…”
Night had fallen.
As he watched the dazzling billboard lights pass by outside the window, Lenoch let out a low sigh.
This time had truly been dangerous.
If Evelyn had not appeared after the factory exploded, he would have died there.
There had been a danger he never expected when he accepted the job.
And it had been an opponent he could not handle in his current state.
Lenoch believed he had done everything he could.
But at that moment, desperation and effort had been completely separate from the result.
“……”
This would not do.
The will to live he had built up until now—
That desperate struggle for survival had to become his strength.
It had to become an asset that pushed him forward.
He needed to become stronger.
He had to struggle more.
Beg more.
Try harder.
He wanted to survive.
He needed the strength and resolve to endure any hardship and any danger.
Lenoch knew he had both the talent and the determination to do it.
Lost in thought, he eventually arrived in front of the hotel.
As soon as he entered his room with his battered body, Lenoch quickly showered and collapsed onto the bed.
Then he placed a sleeping pill in his mouth and chewed it instead of swallowing it with water.
As soon as Lenoch received his new ID card, he opened an account at a bank near District 30.
The commercial bank was eager to attract new customers. When Lenoch said he planned to deposit twenty million Cel soon, they verified his identity and immediately created an account for him.
He also received a cash card that would let him access the money in the account.
After that, Lenoch deposited the ten million Cel he had been keeping in his hotel room. Then he went to a private mobile phone store, chose a suitable device, and activated it.
Using the number he had received in advance, he contacted Jenny.
She picked up right away.
[You might be the first person in this city to wait a whole month before activating a phone, even if you only work whenever you feel like it.]
“What about the vagrants living in District 50?”
[Can they even be called people?]
Lenoch shook his head at Jenny’s harsh words.
The cold rationality of the wizard within him understood that there was some truth in what she said.
Jenny gave several pieces of advice to Lenoch, who had only just set up his phone and bank account.
[You might not know this since you’ve been training in isolation, but when you work in this field, it’s better to have some kind of visible income source on the surface. If money keeps entering your account while you appear to do nothing, it could raise unnecessary suspicion.]
“Are you telling me to get a simple part-time job?”
[Anyway, you officially opened an account with a commercial bank, right? The chances are low, but you could get dragged into an unnecessary tax investigation. If you keep working with me, the amount of money you handle will only grow, so it’s better to prepare in advance.]
“Hmm…”
Lenoch had not yet decided whether he would continue working with Jenny, but he listened as though he intended to take her advice seriously.
From experience, he knew that letting her arrange jobs for him was not a bad idea until he understood more about how the city worked.
At the very least, she maintained a considerate attitude toward him on the surface.
For Lenoch, who still had much to learn about this world, that was useful.
But cooperation did not mean trust.
Jenny’s increasingly friendly attitude made it clear that she had expectations of him.
‘She must have heard from Dylan that I used ice magic, but she hasn’t said anything.’
Jenny knew Lenoch as an electric-type wizard.
Even so, she had not asked about the ice magic he had used, nor had she mentioned it at all.
[Anyway, after this incident, word will probably spread that a wizard is looking for work in this area. You may start receiving direct job requests in the future.]
“I see.”
[You might find jobs that suit you better and pay far more. Look forward to it.]
“……”
After the call ended, Lenoch quietly stared at the phone.
Would Jenny betray him later?
Or did she plan to keep his secret and continue cooperating with him?
There was no way to know until they both revealed their cards.
But Lenoch had no intention of simply waiting around.
With a crooked smile on his face, he gripped his phone and returned to the hotel.
Click—
“How was it?”
As soon as Jenny put down the receiver, Jordan, who was standing beside her, asked.
Jenny shook her head as if there was no hope.
“There wasn’t even the slightest reaction when I spoke to him directly.”
“Hmm…”
Jordan crossed his arms and fell into thought.
Jenny looked at him and asked,
“Could Dylan have missed it?”
“That’s unlikely. Most wizards are the kind of people who cling to even the smallest possibility. You could say they worry too much. But even after realizing that his disguise had been seen through, he said nothing… Normally, someone would at least say something to cover up the mistake.”
Just as Lenoch had expected, the two had already heard the details from Dylan and realized that he was not merely an electric-type wizard.
A binding spell like **[Gravity Bind]** might have been overlooked because its nature was somewhat vague.
But there was no way to miss the attribute of **[Frost Horn]**, the spell he had used to stop Crocken.
They knew Lenoch could use at least two attributes.
However, that fact alone did not particularly shock them.
The world of magic was vast and deep. Even if it was not a simple attribute-specialized system, there were magic systems that could handle two or more attributes if one looked hard enough.
What mattered was something else.
Why would someone skilled and perceptive hide the full extent of his magic?
And did he still intend to keep working with them?
“Ha, I really want to keep him.”
“Are you that interested in Van’s abilities?”
He was a wizard who had survived an encounter with Crocken of Pandemonium.
The fact that he had escaped the grasp of that ruthless war mercenary was enough to make many people curious about his background.
“It’s not just his abilities… His personality is perfect too. Have you ever seen a wizard who can communicate that well while working alone?”
“…I understand what you mean.”
To be honest, there were wizards in this field who were more skilled than Lenoch.
However, people with outstanding or powerful abilities were usually tied to organizations or groups and treated as valuable assets.
There were freelance wizards like Lenoch who refused recruitment and offers, but most of them were either impossible to work with because of their personalities or demanded absurdly high fees.
Building a cooperative relationship with a wizard, one of the most professional and adaptable occupations in Balkan, was never easy.
And meeting a wizard like Lenoch, who seemed to have only recently come down to the city after training in isolation, was even rarer.
Jordan easily understood what Jenny meant and nodded.
“In the end, all we can do is arrange suitable jobs for Van and offer him good pay. If we try to overstep carelessly, it could backfire.”
“Damn it, I know.”
Jenny said that as she turned on her computer and connected to the network.
She began searching for requests that would suit Lenoch.
“It would be best to recommend corporate requests. Those usually end cleanly.”

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